In the case of small inland streams, generally, the mouth is a commonplace affair. The features that charm shrink from the fateful spot, and we are put in a condition of anticipation4 at the start which, happily, 110proves one of abundant realization5 at the finish.
A certain midsummer Saturday was not an ideal one for an outing, but with most excellent company I ventured up the creek. It was my friend’s suggestion, so I was free from responsibility. Having promised nothing, I could in no wise be justly held accountable. Vain thought! Directly I suffered in their estimation because, at mere6 beck and nod, polliwogs were not forthcoming and fishes refused to swim into my hand. What strange things we fancy of our neighbors! Because I love the wild life about me, one young friend thought me a magician who could command the whole creek’s fauna7 by mere word of mouth. It proved an empty day in one respect, animal life scarcely showing itself. To offer explanations was of no avail, and one of the little company recast her opinions. Perhaps she even entertains some doubt as to my having ever seen a bird or fish or the coveted8 polliwog.
It is one thing to be able to give the name and touch upon the habits of some captured creature, and quite another to command its immediate9 presence when we enter its haunts. 111This always should, and probably never will, be remembered.
But what of the creek, the one-time Big-Bird Creek of the Delaware Indians? With ill-timed strokes we pulled our languid oars10, and passed many a tree, jutting11 meadow, or abandoned wharf12 worthy13 of more than a moment’s contemplation. But, lured14 by the treasure still beyond our reach, we went on and on, until the trickling15 waters of a hillside spring proved too much for us, and, turning our prow16 landward, we stopped to rest.
Among old trees that afforded grateful shade, a spring that bubbled from an aged17 chestnut’s wrinkled roots, a bit of babbling18 brook19 that too soon reached the creek and was lost, and, beyond all, wide-spreading meadows, boundless20 from our point of view—what more need one ask? To our credit, be it said, we were satisfied, except, perhaps, that here, as all along our course, polliwogs were perverse21. Birds, however, considerately came and went, and even the shy cuckoo deigned22 to reply when we imitated his dolorous23 clucking. A cardinal24 grosbeak, too, drew near and whistled a welcome, and once eyed us with much interest as we sat lunching 112on the grass. What did he think of us? Eating, with him, is so different a matter, and perhaps he could give us a few useful hints. The trite25 remark, “Fingers came before forks,” has a significance in the woods, if not in the town. While eating we listened, and I heard the voices of nine different birds. Some merely chirped26 in passing, it is true, but the marsh-wrens27 in the cat-tail thicket28 just across the creek were not silent for a moment. Here in the valley of the Delaware, as I recently found them on the shores of Chesapeake Bay, the wrens are quite nocturnal, and I would have been glad to have heard them sing in the moonlight again; for our enthusiasm would have been strengthened by a few such glimpses of the night side of Nature.
No bird is so welcome to a mid-day camp as the white-eyed vireo, and we were fortunate in having one with us while we tarried at the spring. Not even ninety degrees in the shade has any effect upon him, and this unflagging energy reacts upon the listener. We could at least be so far alive as to give him our attention. Mid-day heat, however, does affect many a song-bird, and now that nesting is well-nigh over, the open woods 113are deserted29 for hidden cool retreats, where the songster takes its ease, as we, far from town, are taking ours. There is much in common between birds and men.
How, as we lingered over our glasses, counting the lemon-seeds embedded30 in sugar, we would have enjoyed a wood-thrush’s splendid song or a rose-breasted grosbeak’s matchless melody! but the to-whee of the pipilo scratching among dead leaves, the plaint of an inquisitive31 cat-bird threading the briers, the whir of a humming-bird vainly seeking flowers,—these did not pass for nothing; and yet there was comparative silence that suggested a sleeping rather than a wakeful, active world.
Here let me give him who loves an outing a useful hint: be not so anxious for what may be that you overlook that which is spread before you. More than once to-day our discussion of the “silence” of a midsummer noontide drowned the voices of singing-birds near by.
How often it has been intimated to us that "two’s company and three’s a crowd"! but to really see and hear what transpires32 in the haunts of wild life, one is company and two’s 114a crowd. We cannot heed33 Nature and fellow-man at the same moment; and as to the comparative value of their communications, each must judge for himself.
Certainly the human voice is a sound which animals are slow to appreciate. How often have I stood in silence before birds and small animals and they have shown no fear! A movement of my arms would put them on guard, perhaps; but a word spoken, and away they sped. Not a bird, I have noticed, is startled by the bellow34 of a bull or the neigh of a horse, and yet my own voice filled them with fear. Even snakes that knew me well and paid no attention to my movements were startled at words loudly spoken. It is a bit humiliating to think that in the estimation of many a wild animal our bark is worse than our bite.
A midsummer noontide has surely some merit, and when I failed to find fish, frog, or salamander for my young friend, it became necessary to point to some feature of the spot that made it worth a visit. To my discomfiture35, I could find nothing. Trees have been talked of overmuch, and there were no wild flowers. The August bloom gave, as yet, only 115a hint of what was coming. I had hit upon a most unlucky interim36 during which no man should go upon a picnic. In despair and empty-handed, we took to our boat and started up the creek. It was a fortunate move, for straightway the waters offered that which I had vainly sought for on shore. Here were flowers in abundance. The pickerel-weed was in bloom, the dull-yellow blossoms of the spatterdock dotted the muddy shores, bind-weed here and there offered a single flower as we passed by, and never was golden-dodder more luxuriant. Still, it is always a little disappointing when Flora37 has the world to herself, and while we were afloat it was left to a few crows and a single heron to prove that she had not quite undisputed sway.
Up the creek with many a turn and twist, and now on a grassy38 knoll39 we land again, where a wonderful spring pours a great volume of sparkling water into the creek. Here at last we have an object lesson that should bear fruit when we recall the day. Not a cupful of this clear cold water could we catch but contained a few grains of sand, and for so many centuries has this carrying of sand grains been in progress that now a great 116ridge has choked the channel where once rode ships at anchor. An obscure back-country creek now, but less than two centuries ago the scene of busy industry. Perhaps no one is now living who saw the last sail that whitened the landscape. Pages of old ledgers40, a bit of diary, and old deeds tell us something of the place; but the grassy knoll itself gives no hint of the fact that upon it once stood a warehouse41. Yet a busy place it was in early colonial times, and now utterly42 neglected.
It is difficult to realize how very unsubstantial is much of man’s work. As we sat upon the grassy slope, watching the outgoing tide as it rippled43 and broke in a long line of sparkling bubbles, I rebuilt, for the moment, the projecting wharf, of which but a single log remains44, and had the quaint45 shallops of pre-Revolutionary time riding at anchor. There were heard, in fact, the cry of a heron and the wild scream of a hawk46; but these, in fancy, were the hum of human voices and the tramp of busy feet.
The Old Drawbridge, Crosswick’s Creek
The scattered47 stones that just peeped above the grass were not chance bowlders rolled from the hill near by, but the door-step and 117foundation of the one-time warehouse. The days of buying, selling, and getting gain came back, in fancy, and I was more the sturdy colonist48 than the effeminate descendant. But has the present no merit? We had the summer breeze that came freighted with the odors gathered from the forest and the stream, and there were thrushes rejoicing in our hearing that the hill-sides were again as Nature made them. It meant much to us to tarry in the shade of venerable trees spared by the merchants that once collected here, whose names are now utterly forgotten. Stay! there are two reminders49 of ancient glory. A beech50 that overhangs the brook has its bark well scarred, and, now beyond decipherment, there are initials of many prominent naturalists51 of Philadelphia. A few rods up-stream is another beech that has remained unchanged. On it can be seen the initials T. A. C., 1819; those of the celebrated52 paleontologist, Conrad, born near here in 1803.
The shadows lengthen53; the cooler hours of eventide draw on; the languid thrushes are again abroad; music fills the air. We are homeward bound and hurrying down-stream. 118Our minds are not so receptive as when we started. How shrunken to a few rods is every mile! Trees, flowers, and birds are scarcely heeded54; but the good gathered as we went up the creek we bring away, and, once again in the dusty village street, we realize that we have but to turn our back upon the town to find the world a picture.
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1
creek
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| n.小溪，小河，小湾 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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akin
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| adj.同族的，类似的 | |
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anticipation
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| n.预期，预料，期望 | |
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realization
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| n.实现；认识到，深刻了解 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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fauna
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| n.(一个地区或时代的)所有动物，动物区系 | |
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coveted
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| adj.令人垂涎的；垂涎的，梦寐以求的v.贪求，觊觎(covet的过去分词)；垂涎；贪图 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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oars
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| n.桨，橹( oar的名词复数 )；划手v.划（行）( oar的第三人称单数 ) | |
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jutting
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| v.（使）突出( jut的现在分词 )；伸出；（从…）突出；高出 | |
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wharf
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| n.码头，停泊处 | |
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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lured
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| 吸引，引诱（lure的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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trickling
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| n.油画底色含油太多而成泡沫状突起v.滴( trickle的现在分词 )；淌；使)慢慢走；缓慢移动 | |
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prow
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| n.(飞机)机头，船头 | |
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aged
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| adj.年老的，陈年的 | |
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babbling
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| n.胡说，婴儿发出的咿哑声adj.胡说的v.喋喋不休( babble的现在分词 )；作潺潺声（如流水）；含糊不清地说话；泄漏秘密 | |
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brook
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| n.小河，溪；v.忍受，容让 | |
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boundless
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| adj.无限的；无边无际的；巨大的 | |
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perverse
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| adj.刚愎的；坚持错误的，行为反常的 | |
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deigned
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| v.屈尊，俯就( deign的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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dolorous
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| adj.悲伤的；忧愁的 | |
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cardinal
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| n.(天主教的)红衣主教；adj.首要的，基本的 | |
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trite
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| adj.陈腐的 | |
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chirped
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| 鸟叫，虫鸣( chirp的过去式 ) | |
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wrens
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| n.鹪鹩( wren的名词复数 ) | |
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thicket
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| n.灌木丛，树林 | |
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deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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embedded
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| a.扎牢的 | |
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inquisitive
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| adj.求知欲强的，好奇的，好寻根究底的 | |
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transpires
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| （事实，秘密等）被人知道( transpire的第三人称单数 )； 泄露； 显露； 发生 | |
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heed
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| v.注意，留意；n.注意，留心 | |
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bellow
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| v.吼叫，怒吼；大声发出，大声喝道 | |
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discomfiture
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| n.崩溃；大败；挫败；困惑 | |
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interim
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| adj.暂时的，临时的；n.间歇，过渡期间 | |
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flora
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| n.(某一地区的)植物群 | |
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grassy
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| adj.盖满草的；长满草的 | |
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knoll
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| n.小山，小丘 | |
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40
ledgers
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| n.分类账( ledger的名词复数 ) | |
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warehouse
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| n.仓库；vt.存入仓库 | |
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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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43
rippled
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| 使泛起涟漪（ripple的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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quaint
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| adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的 | |
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hawk
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| n.鹰，骗子；鹰派成员 | |
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scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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colonist
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| n.殖民者，移民 | |
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reminders
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| n.令人回忆起…的东西( reminder的名词复数 )；提醒…的东西；（告知该做某事的）通知单；提示信 | |
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50
beech
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| n.山毛榉；adj.山毛榉的 | |
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51
naturalists
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| n.博物学家( naturalist的名词复数 )；（文学艺术的）自然主义者 | |
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52
celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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53
lengthen
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| vt.使伸长，延长 | |
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54
heeded
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| v.听某人的劝告，听从( heed的过去式和过去分词 )；变平，使（某物）变平( flatten的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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